- Sweeping Vietnam internet law comes into force
- Pope kicks off Christmas under shadow of war
- Catholics hold muted Christmas mass in Indonesia's Sharia stronghold
- Japan's top diplomat in China to address 'challenges'
- Thousands attend Christmas charity dinner in Buenos Aires
- Demand for Japanese content booms post 'Shogun'
- As India's Bollywood shifts, stars and snappers click
- Mystery drones won't interfere with Santa's work: US tracker
- Djokovic eyes more Slam glory as Swiatek returns under doping cloud
- Australia's in-form Head confirmed fit for Boxing Day Test
- Brazilian midfielder Oscar returns to Sao Paulo
- 'Wemby' and 'Ant-Man' to make NBA Christmas debuts
- US agency focused on foreign disinformation shuts down
- On Christmas Eve, Pope Francis launches holy Jubilee year
- 'Like a dream': AFP photographer's return to Syria
- Chiefs seek top seed in holiday test for playoff-bound NFL teams
- Panamanians protest 'public enemy' Trump's canal threat
- Cyclone death toll in Mayotte rises to 39
- Ecuador vice president says Noboa seeking her 'banishment'
- Leicester boss Van Nistelrooy aware of 'bigger picture' as Liverpool await
- Syria authorities say armed groups have agreed to disband
- Maresca expects Man City to be in title hunt as he downplays Chelsea's chancs
- Man Utd boss Amorim vows to stay on course despite Rashford row
- South Africa opt for all-pace attack against Pakistan
- Guardiola adamant Man City slump not all about Haaland
- Global stocks mostly higher in thin pre-Christmas trade
- Bethlehem marks sombre Christmas under shadow of war
- NASA probe makes closest ever pass by the Sun
- 11 killed in blast at Turkey explosives plant
- Indonesia considers parole for ex-terror chiefs: official
- Global stocks mostly rise in thin pre-Christmas trade
- Postecoglou says Spurs 'need to reinforce' in transfer window
- Le Pen says days of new French govt numbered
- Global stocks mostly rise after US tech rally
- Villa boss Emery set for 'very difficult' clash with Newcastle
- Investors swoop in to save German flying taxi startup
- How Finnish youth learn to spot disinformation
- South Korean opposition postpones decision to impeach acting president
- 12 killed in blast at Turkey explosives plant
- Panama leaders past and present reject Trump's threat of Canal takeover
- Hong Kong police issue fresh bounties for activists overseas
- Saving the mysterious African manatee at Cameroon hotspot
- India consider second spinner for Boxing Day Test
- London wall illuminates Covid's enduring pain at Christmas
- Poyet appointed manager at South Korea's Jeonbuk
- South Korea's opposition vows to impeach acting president
- The tsunami detection buoys safeguarding lives in Thailand
- Teen Konstas to open for Australia in Boxing Day India Test
- Asian stocks mostly up after US tech rally
- US panel could not reach consensus on US-Japan steel deal: Nippon
In Nigeria, finding value in waste recycling
Mounds of waste scattered along roads and vast landfills are a Nigerian eyesore.
In Africa's biggest economy and most populous country, collecting, sorting and recycling trash is despairingly rare.
But there is also good news. Some entrepreneurs are working hard to tackle the rubbish mountain, despite the many challenges.
Romco Metals started recycling aluminium at its factory outside Lagos in 2015, drawn by global demand for the light, strong, flexible metal.
Buoyed by good results, it built a second facility outside Ghana's capital Accra and now plans to open at least three new plants across Africa and triple production by 2025.
Aluminium is the world's second most-used metal after steel and used widely in construction, medicine and car-making.
"Electric vehicles require more durable lighter material such as aluminium, and that’s where our materials end up," said the company's youthful founder, 32-year-old Raymond Onovwigun.
- Job creation -
A British-registered company, Romco melts down and recycles around 1,500 tonnes of discarded aluminium per month, out of a capacity of 3,000 tonnes.
It says it has created 450 direct jobs -- 5,000 in total, in this labour-intensive sector -- and plans to double that number within a year.
"Before... there was no work," community leader Bankole Gbenga known as Chief Abore told AFP during a recent visit to the Lagos facility.
Chief Abore says more than a hundred young people from his community alone now work for Romco in some capacity.
"Some are doing carpentry, some are welders... some of the youth are doing security," said the 40-year-old.
Among those who have most benefited from Romco’s business are material suppliers like Mohammed Ashiru Madugu, who delivers several truckloads of metal scrap each week.
Madugu has a warehouse in northwestern Katsina, where suppliers from across the state and even neighbouring states bring him discarded metal.
He loads the goods onto trucks and sends them -– with escorts because of frequent ambushes by criminal gangs on the road –- all the way to Lagos, more than a thousand kilometres (600 miles) away.
For one truck, he can get paid up to 26 million naira (about $60,000 dollars) although the price fluctuates.
- Vast problem -
Only a tiny fraction of waste is recycled in Nigeria, a country of some 210 million consumers.
Plastic, metal and glass that in advanced economies are routinely picked up and processed are mostly tossed out.
Each year, Nigeria disgorges 200,000 tonnes of plastic into the Atlantic, the UN Industrial Development Organisation reported last year.
In Lagos alone, a city of more than 20 million people, less than 10 percent total recyclables are currently collected, Ibrahim Adejuwon Odumboni, managing director of the Lagos State Management Agency told AFP.
By comparison, in the UK, more than 41 percent of waste picked up by local authorities was recycled last year, according to British statistics.
For Odumboni, recycling initiatives are to be commended but more should be done by the companies making aluminium beverage cans and other products.
"We need the manufacturers to invest in the collection system. In many parts of the world, a portion of what producers sell is going into the recovery of products. We currently don't have that in Nigeria," he said.
If companies selling aluminium products "are not held responsible (for collecting waste) then it doesn’t make any sense -- we're just going round and round in circle."
He blames poor legislation but says an improved law on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is currently being discussed in the state house of assembly.
EPR is an environmental policy in place in many countries that gives producers incentives to take responsibility for their products after they are used.
Another challenge for recyclers is carbon emissions from the energy they use to crush, shred or melt old materials.
Romco, for instance, uses compressed natural gas to turn the aluminium into ingots.
"(It) is still a fossil fuel but the best, most efficient fossil fuel. It doesn’t contain lead or sulphur," said Onovwigun.
The company says, however, that it wants to be independent of fossil fuels and is "exploring the potential of using solar, green hydrogen, and biofuels."
O.Karlsson--AMWN